The Ring
by RD22
Summary: Haiba is hired by Nala to see what Simba has been up to... Haiba soon learns, it is nothing good. (Set in modern city. Not anthro, or human).
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **Hello, this is kora22... Just on my second account. This will be for other little ideas that pop into my mind, but I don't want to break the flow of my series. Any stories on this account will not be canon to my series. Oh, and none will be anthro or human, even if it seems like they should be. Use your imagination!

**The Ring: Part One**

A lightning bolt cracks across the sky, lighting up the sky above the city as rain pours down on the empty streets. Everyone has retreated inside, except for one lone lion cub, who is walking toward a worn down apartment building. He has a rain jacket on with the sleeves over his forelegs. Attached to his waist is a holster with a .45 caliber pistol.

"Crummy weather..." he mutters to himself as he approaches the building. He has to admit, it looks awful, broken windows, rotting boards... Definitely not the kind of place he would want to live in. In the windows that aren't broken, he can see lights inside.

He walks up to the front door and pulls the handle to open it. It comes off in his paw, and he drops it to the ground. He manages to get the door open and begins walking up the stairs inside. There is an elevator, but he's not taking the risk of it plummeting to the bottom of the shaft. He walks up several flights until he gets to the sixth floor. He then, walked down the hallway until he stopped in front of a door.

"Apartment 604... This is the place," he said quietly to himself before knocking on the door.

A few moments later, he hears the lock open and the doorknob begins to turn, causing it to fall off on his side of the door. The door slides open and a lioness cub with cream colored fur is standing on the other side.

"Glad to see you made it, Haiba," she said with a smile.

"Hello, Nala," he replied. He looked down at the broken doorknob. "Remind me to fix that for you."

"Never mind that right now," she told him. "Come in and have a seat."

Haiba walked in and took off his jacket, hanging it up on the fragile coat rack in the corner of the room. He then walked into the kitchen and sat down in a chair at the table. Nala pulled out another chair and sat across from him.

"Got any cheese?" Haiba asked.

"Just ran out," Nala told him. "I won't have any food until tomorrow."

"Well then," Haiba began, "down to business... What was it you called me here for?"

"It's about Simba," Nala said.

"Oh yeah," Haiba said, "Where is he anyway? I haven't seen him since the day I left town; right after your wedding."

Nala dropped her head for a minute before looking back up at Haiba. He had been gone for months, so, he didn't know anything that had happened since then.

"Simba... Doesn't live here anymore," she told him, sliding a piece of paper across the table.

Haiba picked up the paper and looked at what was written on it. In big letters across the top it was clearly labled 'DIVORCE.'

"You divorced him?" Haiba asked. "Why? I thought you two were madly in love with each other?"

Nala sighed before explaining. "We were... Then things began changing. We weren't even married for five months before it started."

"Before what started?" Haiba asked.

"Simba began changing," she said. "He became a completely different cub. It got to the point where he was abusive."

"Abusive?" Haiba asked. "That doesn't sound like him at all."

"Exactly," Nala said. "It isn't. It started when he said he was going out with some friends one night... When he came back, he wasn't himself. His temper was short, and he acted a little crazy."

"Sounds like a typical case of alcoholism," Haiba told her.

"That's what I thought, too," she said, "but he never had the scent of alcohol on him. I looked into it a little myself, but nobody wanted to talk to me. Eventually it got so bad that he was doing it every night. He got worse and worse until I had no choice but to divorce him," she sighed. "That didn't seem to bother him at all. He left without saying a word, and I haven't seen him since."

"How does this relate to me?" Haiba asked.

"It doesn't..." Nala said. "I called you here for a favor."

"And that would be...?"

"I want you to find Simba," she said. "Find out what he's been up to. Being an undercover cop, that shouldn't be too hard, now should it?"

Haiba stood up and went over and grabbed his jacket from the rack. He put it on and walked over to the door.

"I'll do it," Haiba said. "No promises, but I'll do my best."

"Thank you, Haiba." Nala said as he she walked over and kissed him on the cheek.

Haiba nodded and walked out the door, shutting it behind him.

* * *

Haiba walked down the wet, filthy street. He really had nothing to go on as to where Simba was, but that wasn't going to stop him. He couldn't let Nala down. He saw a big neon sign hanging outside a building ahead of him. It was flashing on and off and it read, 'Buko's Bar.' When he got closer, someone was suddenly thrown out into the street. They landed in a large puddle. Haiba saw it was a human.

The bouncer yelled from the doorway. "That's the last time you come in here, you stupid, Iranian drunk!"

The man stood up and yelled back, rather drunkenly, "Nobody treats me that way! I am Greg!" He then staggered down the street, most likely to pass out somewhere.

Haiba just shook his head and walked inside the bar.

"There's no reason I can't have a little drink and some dinner before I get going on the investigation..." he said to himself.

Inside the bar, there were lions and lionesses sitting at the bar and at different tables. Haiba took a seat at one of the tables and opened one of the menus. A few moments later, a cub came over to the table.

"I'm Akili, and I'll be your server tonight," she said. "What will you have?"

"Hm..." Haiba said, looking over the menu. "Give me the grilled cheese, with a side of cheese fries. I'll have a can of Cheesy Cola for a drink."

The waitress walked away from the table, leaving Haiba there by himself. He looked over at another table, where there was a few female cubs looking at him and whispering. He winked at them, causing them to giggle. He always had that effect on the ladies.

A few minutes later his food came out. As he was about to start eating, he heard something.

"Hey, you!" a harsh whisper sounded.

Haiba looked around, and the voice spoke up again.

"Over here!"

A cub in a hooded cloak was calling him to a corner of the bar. Haiba stood up and walked over, but he remained alert.

The corner of the bar was dark and the only thing Haiba could see of the cub was the pair of glowing gold eyes under his hood.

"I now all about what Nala told you to do..." Sora said. "I'll warn you now, don't do it. It's much too dangerous."

"How do you-"

"I know a lot of things," the cub said. "Heed my advice, do not look into this any further, otherwise, I cannot guarantee your safety...

"Is that a threat?" Haiba said sharply.

"Maybe... Maybe not," the cub said. "This is for your own good... But if you insist on continuing, I'll give you a hint... The first clue lies in this very bar."

Haiba turned and looked around the bar. When he turned back to speak to the cub, he was gone.

"Well," Haiba said, "it appears that there might be more going on than I thought... Dinner will have to wait, it's time for a little investigating..."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **What will Detective Haiba face to find the truth about Simba? Let's find out...

* * *

**The Ring: Part Two**

Haiba began walking around the bar. That cub he had just spoken to clearly knew something, but he had decided to be mysterious rather tan straight forward about it. There weren't too many lions in the bar, so, the clue the cub was talking about shouldn't be to hard to find. As Haiba scanned the bar, his eyes moving to the different patrons, who were talking, laughing, and drinking. He stopped when his eyes fell upon a particular lion sitting at the end of the bar.

"He could know something..." Haiba said to himself as he walked over to the lion, who had a beer sitting in front of him.

"You staying out of trouble?" Haiba asked.

The lion turned to look at his speaker. "Detective Haiba..." he said a little venomously.

"Still mad, Tamba?" Haiba asked. "Maybe next time you shouldn't knock off a convenient store, then I wouldn't have had to throw you in jail."

"What do you want?" Tamba asked, taking a sip from the bottle on the bar.

"You may remember my friend, Simba," he said. "I'm conducting a little investigation on him. Have you seen him around lately?"

"That little pest?" Tamba said flatly. "No. Last I heard, he was divorced. That's all I know."

"That doesn't help me," Haiba said, "but thanks anyway."

Tamba just grunted in response as Haiba walked past him. He took another sip of his beer.

* * *

With Tamba being a dead end, Haiba knew that someone else must have the information he was looking for. Sitting at one of the tables, he spotted two cubs sitting, one of them, a female, had a gold earring in her left ear. The other cub was a male, most likely her boyfriend. As Haiba was going to walk right by them, seeing as they probably wouldn't know anything, but then he heard the female say something.

"Yeah," she said, "Simba should be back in a few days."

"Then it goes down?" the male asked.

The girl smiled. "Oh, yeah."

Haiba walked over to the table and pulled out a chair, sitting between the two cubs.

"Can we help you?" the female asked.

"I don't know," Haiba said, "can you? What are your names?"

"Uh... Vitani," she said, "and that's my boyfriend, Kulaani."

"I hear you two know Simba," he said to the two cubs.

Vitani looked at Kulaani nervously. They both shifted in their seats awkwardly.

"Uh... Yeah," Kulaani told him. "What's it to you?"

"I'm investigating him," Haiba told them. "It sounds like you two know where he is."

"We don't know a thing," Vitani hissed. "Now, get away from us!"

Look, I heard you mention him, and there is only one Simba in this city," Haiba looked down and saw a backpack next to Kulaani. One of the pockets was open, exposing a plastic bag with a substance in it. Haiba reached down and pulled the baggie out.

"Hey!" Kulaani yelled, snatching it away from Haiba.

"Weed?" Haiba asked. "You kids shouldn't be doing that stuff."

"Kids?" Vitani asked. "Aren't you a kid, too?"

"Never mind that," Haiba told her. "I could arrest you right now for possession," this caused both cubs' eyes to widen with fear, realizing that Haiba was a cop, "but I'll let this one slide if you tell me what you know about Simba."

Vitani and Kulaani looked at each other again. They didn't have a choice.

"Fine," Vitani said, "but you're only getting some information."

"That's all I need," Haiba said.

"Simba is out of town right now for... business," she told him. "If you really need to find him, he will probably be in that classy part of town with all the big houses... That's all I'm saying."

Haiba stood up and pushed his chair in. "Thank you for your time," then he walked outside the bar.

"We can't tell any of them that we spoke to a cop," Vitani told her boyfriend. "_He _will have us killed."

"I know," Kulaani replied, "As far as I'm concerned, that conversation never happened."

There was silence between the two.

"So... Want a joint?" he asked.

"Hell yes!"

* * *

"The rich part of town?" Haiba asked himself. "Why would Simba be there? Well, there's no point in going now... They said he was gone for a few days. Hm... Might as well bust a few drug addicts while I'm out. Friday nights are always good for that."

Further down the street, away from the bar, Haiba came across an alleyway. He had made a lot of arrests here before. It was a popular spot for cubs to hang out at night, usually just to get into trouble. However, tonight, he didn't see anybody.

"Strange..." he said. "Even in terrible weather, there's always cubs here."

He was about to leave, but just before he did, he caught what looked like the outline of a cub in the dark alley. He walked closer to the cub until he became clear. He watched as the cub plunged a needle into his foreleg.

"Hey!" Haiba yelled as he ran over to the cub, who looked at Haiba, not even attempting to escape. Haiba saw that the cub's eyes were dilated, and his breathing was fast.

"You!" the cub began backing away from Haiba. "The law-abiding one!"

"Who are you, kid?"

"They all call me Ugaidi!" the cub yelled. "I know what you are up to, and it shall end in death!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Haiba said. "That drug is messing up your mind!"

"It makes it better!" Ugaidi yelled. "Beware! Death is upon us! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

Ugaidi ran down the alley, leaving Haiba standing there. As far as Haiba was concerned, that fruit cake wasn't worth his time. He had more important things to concentrate on.

"What a nut..." Haiba said. "'Death is upon us.' Man, drugs really mess you up... I better go get some sleep. It'll be a long week, I can tell..."

Haiba left the alley way; in the distance, Ugaidi's maniacal yells could be heard.

"Death! It is all around us! Beware!"


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **Here I am with part three. What were Kulaani and Vitani talking about before? Well, things may become clearer now... The rating has been switched to M for drug use and suggestive themes. If you're looking for anything disgusting, you won't get it here, just implied events. Now, to the story!

* * *

**The Ring: Part Three**

"Damn..." Kulaani said as he held an empty plastic baggie in front of his face. "I can't believe we smoked it all already." He was sitting in his and Vitani's apartment at the kitchen table; she was across from him.

"Well, not _all _of it," Vitani said as she took a draw from the joint she held. "Besides, we can just go get more, and maybe something else."

"Do you plan on paying for it?" Kulaani asked. "I spent all my money already. I'm broke."

Vitani reached down into a bag on the floor next to her and pulled out several hundred dollars. She pushed it across to her boyfriend.

"There," she said, "we should be able to get whatever the hell we want. I have more."

"Where did you get this?" he asked, not that he really cared if she stole it or not.

"I have my ways," she told him with a wink. "Come on, let's go before it gets too busy. I hate waiting."

"It's not like they'll run out," he told her, "I hear when Simba gets back in town, they'll have something completely new for us!"

"He won't be back for a few days though," Kulaani reminded her. "Whatever it is, it's sure to be good..."

"Okay, all this talk is making it worse," Vitani complained. "Can we just go already?"

"Alright," Kulaani replied. "Let's go."

* * *

"Almost there," Kulaani said as the two cubs walked through the rich part of town. All the houses were big, but there was one in particular they were heading to. It was the biggest house in the community, a mansion to be exact. It had a long driveway that isolated the mansion from all the other houses, and for a good reason. There was a party going on almost every night.

The two cubs walked the entire length of the driveway and up to the huge door out front. Kulaani reached up and rang the doorbell. Almost immediately the door opened.

"Hey, Nanga," Kulaani said to the cub that opened the door.

"Welcome back," he replied. "The party's jus' startin'."

Kulaani and Vitani walked by Nanga and into the lobby of the huge mansion. There were a few animals in there, but the main party was happening in the living room, which was the largest room in the whole place.

"Kulaani! Vitani!" a voice yelled from across the room. They could barely hear it due to the yelling and music going on around them. They saw that it was their friend, Mheetu. They walked over to where he was sitting, which was at a bar built into the room.

"You're just in time!" Mheetu's girlfriend, Tora, said from next to him.

"For what?" Vitani asked.

Mheetu pointed at the bar, where there was white powder, cut into lines, on the surface. "We're just about to start a rousing game of 'How Many Lines of Crack Can You Snort Before You Pass Out!'"

"I hate that game," Kulaani told him. "I always lose..."

"Alright, suit yourself," Mheetu shrugged. He put his head down to the powder and quickly snorted four lines of it. "Woohoo! Damn, that's good!"

"We'll pass tonight," Kulaani said. "We need to go make a transaction."

"Well, there's... plenty of dealers down here," Mheetu said unsteadily, falling into the high's grasp.

"We're going to get it from the big guy himself," Kulaani told him. "He always gives us a good deal. See you later."

Mheetu had ignored what Kulaani said, he was too absorbed in his game.

Kulaani and Vitani wandered away from the party. Who they were looking had his own office he worked from. As they walked down one of the hallways, they came across a cub who was crushing something in his paws. It looked strange; it was a dark colored powder.

"What's that, Dhaifu?" Vitani asked.

"The Devil's Breath..." He said as he looked at the powder with an excited expression. It was clear that he was having a terrible craving for it. "It gives me such a wonderful high, sometimes I feel like I'm on fire... I love it. Sure I never remember anything the next day, but all I know is that I want more..."

They watched as he snorted all the powder up his nose. Within seconds, the drug took over. Right before he became completely incoherent, he said one more thing to them.

"Never take this drug..." Then he passed out.

"Okay then..." Vitani said. "Let's hurry up, I need some weed. Now."

The two walked to the end of the hall where they then walked up a spiral staircase. At the top there was a door that was labeled 'Don Roka.' They knocked on the door.

"Come in,"

When they walked inside, they saw the cub in charge sitting at his desk, and to their surprise, Simba was there as well.

"Good to see two of my best customers," Roka said. "What do you two want this evening?"

"The usual," Kulaani told him as he fidgeted, his own cravings becoming unbearable. "And throw in some skag, too. I haven't had that in awhile."

Roka opened up one of his desk drawers and pulled out several plastic baggies filled with marijuana, and a small glass jar of heroin. He pushed it across the desk to Kulaani.

"Seven hundred dollars," he told them.

As Vitani placed the money on the desk, he said something else.

"You know, Vitani," Roka said. "You could pay with the money, or you could pay me another way..."

"I'll pay you with the money," she said.

"I was just kidding," he said, "but that's not to say you aren't attractive."

"So, Simba," Kulaani said as he put the drugs into his bag. "I thought you weren't supposed to be back for a few more days?"

"Got done early," Simba said flatly. "I got this new drug... It's supposed to be one of the best out there."

"I have an idea," Roka said, looking at Kulaani and his girlfriend. "If you two are willing to give this drug a test run, you can have the first of it for free. It usually runs thirteen hundred dollars."

Simba reached into a bag and pulled out two small glass jars, each containing a clear liquid. He also put a needle on the desk.

"I'll do it," Vitani said, picking up the needle. She opened one of the jars and filled up the needle, then she stuck it into her for leg and pulled it out.

She could feel a slight tingling sensation traveling through her veins. She became light headed and felt like she was floating in mid-air. All her problems seemed to melt away as she fell into the best high she had ever experienced. One that she didn't ever want to stop.

Kulaani noticed the look of happiness on her face. It was obvious that whatever this stuff was, it was good. He picked up the needle and di the same thing as she had done. it wasn't long before he was in the same state as her. After a few minutes, Roka and Simba watched as the two laughed and giggled with each other.

"The magic of Hasira..." Simba said. "I guess it lives up to it's reputation."

"Good," Roka grinned, "Get downstairs and start selling. We'll make a ton of money with this stuff... That's for sure."

After Simba walked out the door, Roka looked back at his two high customers, who had started kissing each other, lying on the floor.

"Hey!" Roka exclaimed, "Please, take it to one of the 'special rooms' before it gets too serious... God, what I have to put up with..."

* * *

**A/N: **Well, there's a new and dangerous drug on the streets, and Simba came back before Haiba expected him to. This may complicate things for the detective.


End file.
